Five Tips to Avoid Travel Photo Clichés

In three decades as a photographer for Smithsonian Magazine, Michael Freeman has been asked to shoot some of the world’s most picturesque locales. But they are also some of the world’s most photographed, which presents a challenge. When photographers have had nearly 100 years to perfect the shot of, say, the Taj Mahal, how do you improve on shots so classic they have become cliché?

This should be a matter of concern to any summer traveler who would like to come home with more than a picture of the family standing in front of famous landmarks. Mr. Freeman offers five tips on avoiding the photographic cliché.

1) Know your clichés. You can’t avoid a cliché until you know about it. Do a little research online. “You can do the research now on Google and see the history of an image,” said Mr. Freeman. Look at what works in various shots to incorporate some of those elements without making an exact copy. Now, there can be a disadvantage to research: “It can be off putting to see so many good shots,” said Mr. Freeman. Don’t be demoralized, though. Just be prepared to experiment. “You have to believe that you can do something different,” said Mr. Freeman. “If there were guarantees, it wouldn’t be creative.”

2) What’s your angle? Most people take a shot holding a camera at eye level with a straight line of sight to the subject. “This is generally about getting an image that is efficient, it captures everything, it is expected, but it’s slightly dull,” said Mr. Freeman. Try stepping to the side of the ideal position, putting the camera higher, lower, closer and farther than usual. If you are shooting digitally, you can afford to experiment, said Mr. Freeman, “You are not working with a film camera, where each frame really counts,” he said. “It’s free and there is a delete button.”

Michael FreemanThoughtful framing can make a photograph of a familiar scene seem unique.

3) Frame up. “Framing is really composition,” said Mr. Freeman, but because most cameras now come with zoom lenses, framing isn’t just a choice of what to put in the frame, but the size of the frame as you zoom in and out. For his picture above of the guardsmen, “I knew that to get anything interesting I was going to have to get in close,” he said. “A lot of the reason why you see professionals using extreme lenses is to get different framing than anybody else.” He used a 200mm lens on a camera with a full 35mm size sensor. “Take in overall view, put a mental grid on it then pluck one small rectangle out of it.”

4) How’s your timing? Timing is everything, said Mr. Freeman, but timing can mean a different things, depending on the subject. It can be the time of day to shoot a landmark building, it can be the moment a soccer player connects with a ball, or when the tide is just right at the seashore. The key is to be prepared; then the moment will present itself. ”Have everything set right so you can shoot immediately,” he said. “Try to work out what people might do, where they are going to move—it gives you an edge to getting moment that might be interesting,” he said, “Anticipation really takes you a long way.” If it’s a situation where you can’t anticipate what might happen, don’t worry, just be alert. “When things aren’t under your control, it offers opportunities,” he said, “as long you are prepared.”

5) Clichés are clichés for a reason. Don’t beat yourself up if a shot looks like something else. “Clichés are victims of their own success,” said Mr. Freeman. “They are popular because they look good.”

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